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UNISDR Regional Office for the Americas

In keeping with the mandate of the UNISDR secretariat, the Regional Unit for the Americas strives to provide support to actors throughout the region, including North America, Latin America and the Caribbean.

In keeping with the mandate of the UNISDR secretariat, the Regional Unit for the Americas strives to provide support to actors throughout the region, including North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, in fostering a culture of disaster prevention and contributing to build disaster resilient nations and communities. Our office is located in Panama City, Panama.

We coordinate international efforts in disaster risk reduction and provide guidance for the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action. We also monitor its implementation and report regularly on progress. We advocate for greater investment in disaster risk reduction actions to protect people’s lives and assets. We campaign to build global awareness of disaster risk reduction benefits and empower people to reduce community vulnerabilities to hazard impacts. Our current campaigns focus on safer schools and hospitals and more resilient cities. We organize In coordination with Organization of American States a Regional Platform session every two years, bringing together all relevant parties involved in disaster risk reduction to assess progress on policy implementation.

We encourage the establishment of regional and national platforms for disaster risk reduction, comprising multi stakeholder committees or mechanisms as well as thematic platforms on key topics like early warning, recovery, capacity development, education, environment and others. We promote the effective reduction of climate risks through the integration of disaster risk reduction into policies and programmes for climate change adaptation. We provide a biennial Global Assessment Report, an authoritative analysis of global disaster risk and progress in disaster risk reduction. The 2009 report included a special focus on how and why disaster risk is concentrated in poor communities.